Latest Techdirt Commentshttps://www.techdirt.com/
Easily digestible tech news....Re: Re: Re: Third party doctrinehttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16271931804/4th-amendment-lives-court-tells-us-government-get-warrant-if-it-wants-mobile-phone-location-info.shtml#c217
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 17:52:18 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16271931804/4th-amendment-lives-court-tells-us-government-get-warrant-if-it-wants-mobile-phone-location-info.shtml#c217However, they can generally be ignored and as you point out, sometimes even stopped.It's not easy to ignore incoming calls that drain your ten buck a month pay as you go minutes, and why is it incumbent upon us to stop them? They should be forced to get permission to start in the first place.

They're our phones, not theirs! We're paying the bill for it. Why are we expected to accept (eg.) Verizon getting its corporate nose out of joint so we end up getting robo-called half a million times because their billing data is SNAFU'd?

As for the comparison between some schmuck prosecutor vs. privates screwing with you, I'd rather have neither, thank you very much. One baddie with huge power vs. a thousand ticks sucking your blood are equally unattractive to me. They're both evil.]]>finance helphttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/000324/1149204.shtml#c49560
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 17:25:14 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/000324/1149204.shtml#c49560Re:https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150727/16042931768/happy-birthday-copyright-bombshell-new-evidence-warner-music-previously-hid-shows-song-is-public-domain.shtml#c1933
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 16:52:08 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150727/16042931768/happy-birthday-copyright-bombshell-new-evidence-warner-music-previously-hid-shows-song-is-public-domain.shtml#c1933I would be interested in hearing 1) how much taxpayer money you think is actually being spent litigating this private case, and 2) how you would prefer that money be spent.]]>hidemyass vpnhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130402/02421422545/can-commercial-vpns-really-protect-your-privacy.shtml#c1825
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 16:46:33 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130402/02421422545/can-commercial-vpns-really-protect-your-privacy.shtml#c1825http://www.hideipsoftwares.com/hide-my-ass-review]]>Re:https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16425131805/yes-german-authorities-are-pushing-treason-charges-against-netzpolitik-publishing-surveillance-plans.shtml#c536
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 16:36:46 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16425131805/yes-german-authorities-are-pushing-treason-charges-against-netzpolitik-publishing-surveillance-plans.shtml#c536I've gotta hand it to the USA. This is first rate imperialism on their part of which the old empires could only dream.]]>Re: 'Criminals don't deserve the protection of the law'https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150724/06522631747/audits-asset-forfeiture-program-uncover-funds-used-to-pay-student-loans-property-used-as-rent-free-housing.shtml#c440
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 16:00:19 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150724/06522631747/audits-asset-forfeiture-program-uncover-funds-used-to-pay-student-loans-property-used-as-rent-free-housing.shtml#c440Then on the federal level, a public official (such as a police officer, though certainly not limited to police) who uses their official authority (color of law) to violate any statutory, civil or constitutional right has committed a federal crime -- and if two or more of them work together to do so (say, an officer and his partner) it's automatically a felony, for BOTH of them.

If they feel they don't have to treat accused suspects well because criminals don't deserve rights, then act on that belief, they themselves become criminals -- equally undeserving of rights!]]>"It is too much to expect intellectual property owners to bear all the burden of looking after their property"?https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150802/10440131828/funniestmost-insightful-comments-week-techdirt.shtml#c13
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 14:17:06 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150802/10440131828/funniestmost-insightful-comments-week-techdirt.shtml#c13https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09240231811/wikileaks-latest-info-dump-shows-again-that-nsa-indeed-engages-economic-espionage-against-allies.shtml#c589
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 11:55:54 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09240231811/wikileaks-latest-info-dump-shows-again-that-nsa-indeed-engages-economic-espionage-against-allies.shtml#c589Re: Re: Amerik Injustice for Amerik Incarceration - "Amerik Co.Inc." the American Prison Industryhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/05194831784/cop-to-vet-receiving-end-bogus-raid-investigating-things-beforehand-just-slows-us-down.shtml#c1592
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 11:52:55 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/05194831784/cop-to-vet-receiving-end-bogus-raid-investigating-things-beforehand-just-slows-us-down.shtml#c1592He should be fired immediately."

How anyone in his position, can do this sort of thing and not suffer even the consequence of losing employment, proves that things have gone past the point of no return, in my opinion.

He makes this statement as though he fully believes that this is "how things are done", without even the slightest interest in, or awareness of, the myriad possible dire consequences for those he is suppose to serve and protect.

Which might gain you a decade of semi-coherent semi-peace while the same-old-parasites' children reorganize and get their ducks in a row and start the whole game over.

Sadly, a Revolution would, as always, put you right back where you started, and put the same processes you revolted against, right back in place, as always.

What is actually needed, is an Evolution.

This experiment has ended and ended badly. But it has taught us an encyclopedia of lessons.

It is time to sit down and create something new, using what we have learned from this last experiment, and from all the experiments before it, that will hopefully have a far better chance to function as a social formulae, "For and By The People".

Why revolve back to the same place once again? And Again?

Discard the old an failed and that which has proven useless or detrimental.

Revise what worked and add what was learned.

Adapt.

Evolve.

Or Die.

And it might be wise to add addenda to all future Constitution Documents; that explain in great detail, exactly what is meant by every statement in that document, to prevent exactly the kind of secret revisions that have heralded the new "decline and fall" of the current formulae.

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Sun, 2 Aug 2015 11:28:04 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150801/10390931819/this-week-techdirt-history-july-26th-august-1st.shtml#c27How are these precedents going to effect shareware?https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23065931806/judge-curious-if-malibu-media-is-seeding-own-files-engaged-copyright-misuse.shtml#c590
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 11:12:41 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23065931806/judge-curious-if-malibu-media-is-seeding-own-files-engaged-copyright-misuse.shtml#c590So while Copyright trolls are making some dirty moves, they aren't that much dirtier than conventional advertising. And in a lot of ways they are LESS dirty. I doubt Copyright trolls use the kind of psychologically invasive marketing techniques that are common in other markets.

So there is a subjectivity here that could easily evolve into regulatory capture. More importantly, such regulatory capture would likely target distribution networks most commonly used by small producers of intellectual property.

There is a difference between patent trolling, and copyright trolling. Patents are broadly scoped, and copyrights are narrowly scoped. We hazard ourselves for not giving that fact adequate deference.]]>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/06131031809/taylor-swifts-streaming-rant-nearly-identical-to-garth-brooks-used-cd-rant.shtml#c605
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 10:43:36 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/06131031809/taylor-swifts-streaming-rant-nearly-identical-to-garth-brooks-used-cd-rant.shtml#c605not being listened to.]]>Re: Something I'm not clear on...https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/23003431797/contrary-to-what-youve-heard-tpp-will-undermine-us-law-including-supreme-court-decisions.shtml#c654
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 10:43:17 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/23003431797/contrary-to-what-youve-heard-tpp-will-undermine-us-law-including-supreme-court-decisions.shtml#c654I believe however, that any secret reinterpretation of any part of the Constitution will thus "completely wipe out" the designed effectiveness of that part, in much the same manner as actually erasing that part from the pages of the constitution.

The simple facts that (1) POTUS did a work-around via Fast Track legislation, for a (2) secret trade deal that affects the "laws of the land" of many lands including America, means that the Constitution has already been compromised beyond redemption in order to prevent any future finding of the new laws that the deal creates, or the old laws that the deal alters, as unconstitutional.

Its is perhaps for this very reason that corporate America hired a constitutional scholar for the job of POTUS.

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Sun, 2 Aug 2015 10:31:37 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/10061231813/ridiculous-terrorist-reporting-provision-intelligence-authorization-would-undermine-first-amendment.shtml#c563Thank-u]]>Re: Re: Where's the smoking gun?https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09240231811/wikileaks-latest-info-dump-shows-again-that-nsa-indeed-engages-economic-espionage-against-allies.shtml#c565
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 10:31:17 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09240231811/wikileaks-latest-info-dump-shows-again-that-nsa-indeed-engages-economic-espionage-against-allies.shtml#c565I have no doubt the effect described in the book - whereby third-world countries are loaded up with debt - is largely accurate. I do however think Perkins' "Hit Man" story is a lot of BS or sensationalistic - useful to push a narrative in an otherwise dry and dense subject.]]>Re: Re: Held for moderationhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/10061231813/ridiculous-terrorist-reporting-provision-intelligence-authorization-would-undermine-first-amendment.shtml#c552
Sun, 2 Aug 2015 10:20:27 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/10061231813/ridiculous-terrorist-reporting-provision-intelligence-authorization-would-undermine-first-amendment.shtml#c552That's the only similarity with the post that was held back for moderation last weekend.